


January 14: Dress Up Your Pet Day

by PawneePorpoise



Series: A Year Of Destiel Holiday Drabbles [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Cas Wants A Pet, Ficlet, Fluff, Gen, Men of Letters Bunker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-06-02 18:10:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6577063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PawneePorpoise/pseuds/PawneePorpoise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cas finds out that January 14th is Dress Up Your Pet Day but the problem is, Dean has a strict "No Pets" rule in the bunker.</p>
            </blockquote>





	January 14: Dress Up Your Pet Day

The first thought Dean Winchester had when he drifted back to consciousness Thursday morning, was that he was not alone. Being that he was fairly confident he was still warmly tucked away in his bedroom inside the bunker fighting off the January chill, the chances of this other presence in the room being malicious was slim to none. Slowly blinking his eyes once, twice, three times, as soft light from the bedside table filtered in, Dean stretched his limbs, spreading his fingers and toes to work away the stiffness that comes from a heavy night’s sleep. Yawning dramatically to prove to the intruder in the room that he was rudely awoken, he finally tilted his head just enough to see who was standing at the foot of his bed. 

His eyes landed first on the familiar rumpled tan of Cas’ trenchcoat, followed by the wrong side of his blue striped tie, then the hard stubbled line of his jaw. Dean’s gaze eventually worked it’s way up to meet the shining blue eyes of his closest friend. While it wasn’t unusual for Cas to show up looking for him in his room, even this early in the morning, what was unusual was the widespread grin marking Cas’ features. Pearly whites were smiling down at him and Dean’s bullshit alarm was sounding loud in his ears. Cas definitely looked like he was up to something. Now Dean just had to work out of him what that was without letting on that he knew something was up. 

“Can I help you with something Cas?” Dean purposely letting the gruffness of his sleep heavy voice slow down the delivery of the question. 

“Good morning Dean. I was just stopping by to see if you were awake and to offer you some fresh coffee and donuts if you’re feeling hungry.” The tone of Cas’ seemingly innocent sentence gave no hint of anything other than kind offering. But Dean knew better. This was Cas and this was Dean, there was no hiding behind niceties. Hell, if Dean had a penny for every time he said aloud to Cas what he was actually thinking he’d still be dirt poor. Yet, Cas always knew what he was getting at, without ever having it explicitly said. 

Dean was still a little rough from being woken up this early in the morning to beat around the bush. “What did you do Cas?” Because clearly this was just a ploy to make whatever bad news Cas felt he had to deliver irritate Dean a little less. He did have to admit, if he was going to have to be mad about something, he’d rather do it with a donut in hand than without, that was, if pie wasn’t an option. 

Clearly caught off guard, Cas’ face gave away a hint of worry before his hesitant voice found itself capable of replying. “Er, uh, why do you think I did something?” He was fidgeting now, eyes darting down to the floor unable to meet Dean’s gaze. Clearly this was another sign he was afraid to tell Dean something he knew Dean wasn’t going to like. 

“Just spit it out Cas. Rip the bandaid off and tell me whatever it is. How bad could it really be?” Dean shifted now, sitting up in bed, letting the blanket pool slide down around his hips exposing the faded Led Zeppelin t-shirt he was wearing. Scrubbing a hand over his face, taking a mental note to shave at some point today, his eyes returned to Cas, still standing awkwardly at the end of the bed. Except, now that he was sitting up and had a clearer view another siren was sounding in his ears. There was something else besides Cas in his room, and suddenly it became clear Cas wasn’t just avoiding Dean’s gaze, he was looking at whatever was inside of the large plastic carrier on the floor next to him. Cas must have realized his secret was really out of the bag now because when his eyes locked on to Dean he immediately opened his mouth to start explaining himself. Dean was just a little bit quicker. 

“Castiel, **please** tell me that is not an animal sitting at the foot of my bed.” Dean wasn’t against people having pets. Just as long as those people weren’t living in any sort of close proximity to him. It was a well known rule in the bunker that no pets were allowed after the time Sam had casually mentioned _maybe_ wanting a dog and Dean made such a stink about it that Sam swore to never even mention the word dog again in his presence. Dean knew that maybe that was a little harsh, but attachments rarely worked out for them, and they were just getting into a rhythm living here, they didn’t need anything else to potentially throw a wrench into things. 

Cas was still opening and closing his mouth in a clear attempt to come up with an answer that didn’t end up with Dean tossing him out, and he finally settled on something right as Dean was about to do just that. 

“Dean, just hear me out for a minute. Please. It’s not what you think- I- well, after New Year's Eve I wanted to learn more about human holidays and celebrations so I was doing some research and I told Sam about it and he sent me some links on holidays in the US and then I realized that today was Dress Up Your Pet day and we didn’t have a pet and so I thought- I know about the no pet rule so I was just going to go _look_ at the pets as a way of celebrating but then on my way to the pet store this morning this ball of fur ran out in front of my car and- I was so worried I had hurt it, but luckily I didn’t- But then I couldn’t just leave it out there in the cold and it didn’t have any identification so I figured we could just take care of it until we found a place to take her- and so i went out and bought a carrier and- and-”

At this point Dean’s head was spinning with how fast Cas had spewed out all that information and he was trying to absorb it all when he realized one thing. He still wasn’t sure what the “ball of fur” even was. “Cas?” - The Angel’s head shot up from where it was worriedly eyeing the cage- “What type of animal is in that cage?” 

“Oh-” This had clearly not been the question Cas was expecting after his confession, “It’s a- it’s a cat. _She’s_ a cat.” He bent down to grasp the handle on the carrier, lifting it up into the air so Dean could see through the grate on the front. 

At first Dean couldn’t make out anything but the vague shape of a ball of fur inside, but after a few seconds two bright orange eyes peered up at him and a little pink tongue poked out to lap at the air. Cas was looking into the cage as well, clearly forgetting the gravity of the situation before him, as he smiled wide before poking his finger into the cage to scratch below the little furball’s chin. The kitten was a fan of this gesture and it nuzzled closer to the door of the cage and to Cas. 

Even after seeing the kitten staring back at him, Dean was ready to tell Cas to go put the thing back where he found it. But watching now, as Cas happily cooed at the animal, and great, now it was purring back at him, Dean didn’t have the heart to take this away from him. 

After a few more moments of watching Cas play with the cat, Dean loudly cleared his throat to get the attention back on the matter at hand. Cas’s head swiveled back towards him quickly, hand dropping away from the cage (much to the disappointment of said kitten) and he looked worriedly at Dean. Dean felt like a court TV judge about to hand down a sentence. 

“Cas, now you know about the no pet rule in the bunker. Pets cause problems. Make messes. Get into things they shouldn’t get into. It’s all just more work and more complications.” Cas’ face had fallen at this point, clearly assuming Dean was heading into an outcome that did not bode well for keeping his new pet. “That being said, it clearly already has a cage to stay in, which should keep it out of most places it isn’t meant to go. If you are going to let it out of that cage, it better be in your room and **only** your room. Or Sam’s room if he wants. But definitely **never** my room. You’ll also be responsible for feeding it and any cleaning up after it that needs to be done. Does that sound like something that will work for you?”

Dean waited patiently for Cas’ brain to catch up with all that Dean had said and he saw the exact moment it did. Slowly, then suddenly all at once a blinding smile shown on Cas’ face and his eyes lit up like sunshine. “Yes. That sounds perfect Dean. I can’t beli- thank you for understanding! Zepp is going to love it here!”

Cas set the carrier down on the foot of Dean’s bed to come around to the side Dean was sitting on. He leaned down wrapping his arms around Dean’s torso to hug him as best he could with the awkwardness of angles. Startled at the sudden crushing display of affection it took a moment longer than usual for Cas’ words to fully sink in for him. “Wait Cas, did you say Zepp?” 

Cas pulled back from the hug to stand next to him again, and maybe Dean was imagining it, but his cheeks seemed to blush a little as he began to answer. “Oh-uh, yeah. I kind of, named her already. Zepp. I thought it was nice. It’s uh- short for Zeppelin, like Led Zeppelin. The-the band.” Cas finished lamely. 

“Yes, Cas. I am aware of who Led Zeppelin are.” Dean said, leaning back to point down at his own shirt as proof. “Wait- Did you name your cat after something that I like just to try to convince me to let you keep her?”

Now Dean had really caught him and Cas was **definitely** blushing this time. “Well, at first maybe, but then the name kind of stuck and she seemed to really like it too, and they’re actually a pretty good band. So I figured, I’d just keep the name.” Seemingly in response to her name being said, Zepp let out the littlest meow from her place at the end of the bed and Cas responded with another one of his token smiles. Dean couldn’t help but smile now too. Yeah, yeah, alright, maybe he was a big softie when it came to this sort of thing but he’d never admit to it outloud. 

Pushing the rest of the covers off and swinging his legs out of bed, Dean stood and patted Cas on the shoulder as he walked past on his way towards the door. “Come on Cas, grab Zepp and let’s go to the kitchen. Sounds like I’m not the only one who could use something to eat and she has a busy day of dress up ahead of her so we better get movin'” Grin still locked in place, Cas rushed to grab the carrier again before following Dean out the door.

**Author's Note:**

> Right now I'm working to get caught up in my list of some weird and others no-so-weird holidays so I can write this in real time. I'm clearly still backlogged through January but I am still taking any suggestions for holidays over on [my tumblr](http://personal-space-pls-cas.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> Thanks for reading, commenting, and/or kudo-ing. You are all the best. :D


End file.
